We won the neighborhood "Kid's Choice" award for our neighborhood holiday lights competetion.  ;) Pretty cool.... Here is a picture of what our friends like to call "The Grizwald house"!

It's the most wonderful day of the year! We had a blast opening all our gifts. It was a fabulous day. Mommy went a little crazy on the present buying this year! It is just so much fun to find things that I know they will love. I even surprised Neil with a bike. It was cool because I saved my own work money and paid for it so that he would not see it on the bank statement. He was REALLY surprised and it was so much fun to see his reaction. He has talked about trying to bike ever since he recovered from the wreck. He really misses running so I hope that he will start to love biking as much as he did running. The boys both got new bikes from Santa so the 3 of them went out and rode around the neighborhood a bit. Neil got me a new Zune and a GPS for my car. Boy did I need that! I was very excited. It was a Christmas full of Star Wars, Elmo, and Diego but hopefully above all the boys learned more about the birth of Christ. We give thanks to God for all our Christmas blessings.

Neil and I decided once Grant was born that we wanted to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Home. We really love going to the Christmas eve service at church and getting ready for Santa at home. We have started some special family traditions. After church we get on the boys' PJ's and go outside to set reindeer food out for Santa's reindeer. We set out milk and cookies for Santa and then we all sit down to read together. We read the true Christmas story from the bible and then we read THE NIGHT BEFORE CHISTMAS book. We then let the boys sing Christmas carols for the video camera. This year was a hoot. Greyson was all serious and does an intro and narration with his performance. Grant gets up there and with all his gusto sings "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells". He then starts this great belly laugh and can't stop. We all got really tickled. He is 2 years old going on 10! He is really a handful! After the boys go to bed... we all wait for Santa to deliver and set up the goodies.

We headed to Bluffdale to celebrate with the Moore clan after we left my parents house. It was our first Christmas with our new neices and nephews and it was a lot of fun. We tripled to number of kids that are usually there in one year and that makes for a lot more presents! The kids love to be out on the farm. Greyson loves to gather eggs and eat them right away! Grant loves to go out and see the cows. He was very into the cow poop this time. We took a long walk out to the cows and we were pointing out the poop so he would not step in it. Well, that was just halarious to him so he talked about big poop, little poop, poop on the road, Grant's poop, cow poop, stinky poop.... (You get the picture) all day long. We have been working on patty training so poop is a bigf topic right now. The kids have started a tradition of digging a big hole in Grandad and MiMi's yard at every visit. It is so funny. All 6 of them will go out and dig for hours at a time. As always, we ate and laughed a lot!

 

We had a great time celebrating with the Smith side. Blake came in from LA and Paige from NYC. We really look forward to seeing them since we don't get to but about once a year. My aunt and uncle and grandparents were all there too! I am so blessed to still have all of my grandparents. What a blessing that my kids love my grandparents as much as I do. Gigi, Pa Pa, GaGa and LaLa are really special to all of us. Preston and Greyson spend most of their time playing LEGO Star Wars on the X Box while we are at my parents house. They really love playing the game together and we all love that it keeps them entertained! Grant and Liv are very social and like to interact with the adults a lot. Grant loved all his presents but really LOVED his bike that hooks to the TV and plays games. It is really cool. It teaches him letters, shapes, colors, etc. It is a big hit with Mommy too. The big kids all received RAZOR scooters from Gramma and Poppa. They are very cool too. It was a wonderful Christmas with the Smith side.  

Greyson's Kindergarten performed a holiday program about Gingerbread. Grey got to say a line and was very excited! After the program all the families were invited to stay and build a gingerbread house. We decided to build a gingerbread train. It was neat and very politically correct.... Friday he had his holiday party in his classroom. I am his room mom so it was good to see the plan go into action. It turned out well and the kids had a great time. The biggest hit was making each kid into a snowman using toilet paper!

Microsoft hosts a lovely Christmas... I mean "Holiday" party every year. Neil and I enjoy getting dressed up and having a night out. Our favorite part is the casino area. I love to play blackjack with fake money. It is a lot of fun!

We have a group of 4 couples from church that get together for dinner and games every month. Neil and I hosted everyone here for a holiday dinner and serious game of SCENE IT on the X-Box. It was a great night and we all loved having adult conversations and drinks!

 

 We were surprised with a visit from Santa on Saturday night. They boys were thrilled and really LOVED every minute of his visit. He reminded the boys to keep being good and thanked them for being such good boys. The boys each got one gift and the chance to tell Santa what else they had on their list. Grant liked feeling Santa's beard and Grey had A LOT of questions for him. It was a fun night.

 Greyson is in the church choir at our church. They have been working on their Christmas musical for the last couple of months. Greyson was super excited because he got to be a narrator and speak into the micorphone. It is always a great show and so much fun to see the kids all dressed up. Grey wanted to match "Bubbie" so he got to get new clothes too. Greyson's friend Kaitlyn is the beautiful blond next to him. They have been friends since they were babies. They are pretty cute together especially now that they are both toothless.

We always look forward to the Train exhibit at Northpark every Christmas. We invited our sweet friend, Josie, to join us this year. She has been our sitter for 4 years and my boys are CRAZY about her. They will be her ringbearers in her wedding on July 4th. She is a doll.

We put the boys tree up first. It is full of Star Wars and ball ornaments.... They had fun. I did have to "fix" it after they went to bed. :)

We had a really great Thanksgiving this year. We were able to spend time with both of our families. We went to Granbury and then to Bluffdale. We ate a lot and played lots of games. We all went to the Christmas parade on the Granbury square. Every year, I am amazed that a town hosts a parade to honor Christmas. It is not a holiday or winter parade. It is a CHRISTmas parade that honors Jesus Christ and his birthday. The townspeople gather around the square and sing Christmas songs by candlelight. It is really beautiful! The churches in the town all have floats and other local organizations also can enter a float. The end of the parade brings Santa Claus but other than that the whole parade is about Jesus Christ. It is VERY cool. I am SO thankful that we can expose our children to this type of worship and I hope that they will remember it as they grow up.

The boys and I went to Brownwood. Seriously. It was Grant's first time and Grey's second time. We went to lunch at Underwoods (so good). The boys threw pennies in the water wheel. I have very vivid memories of doing this as a little girl. We got to see my aunt and uncle and grandparents too. The highlights of the trip were driving the forklift at the roofing company and playing at Coggin park. I used to play there when I was little. It is much nicer now. Brownwood is really growing. It was fun to go back for a couple of days.

Miranda, Isabelle, Dominick, and Damian Kinnon are officially part of our family now. We went down to Austin the week before Thanksgiving for their adoption day. It was a really neat day. Shannon and Adam were picked as the media family so they were featured on lots of news stations and papers. They are a beautiful family and we are so thrilled for all of them.